From Best Friend To Fiancé (Savannah and Roman) novel Chapter 160

**TITLE: Dreams Folding Into Broken Time**

He didn’t pull back from me after that moment. Instead, he held me close, our foreheads touching as if we were two pieces of a puzzle finally fitting together. His hand cradled the back of my neck, a gentle yet possessive gesture that sent shivers down my spine.

“Now you know just how much I missed you,” he murmured, his voice low and laced with a dangerous edge that sent my heart racing. “And I’ll remind you of that as often as I need to.”

A tremor ran through me, caught in the whirlwind of exhaustion and lingering aftershocks, and I despised how much I relished hearing those words from him. It was a mixture of warmth and fear, a potent combination that left me breathless.

When he finally withdrew, the world around us felt altered. He adjusted his shirt and pants with a casual nonchalance, while I scrambled to smooth my skirt, acutely aware of how disheveled I must appear. My fingers fumbled, trying to restore some semblance of dignity, but I knew I probably looked wrecked.

Roman, however, wore a satisfied smirk, his eyes glinting with mischief as he leaned down to plant one last kiss on my swollen lips, a lingering reminder of what had just transpired.

“Stay with me,” he commanded, the tone of his voice leaving no room for argument. “Rest. Everyone at your office thinks you’re enjoying a well-deserved day off. But you and I know the truth.”

Heat flooded my cheeks, embarrassment creeping in.

“The truth?” I echoed, my voice barely above a whisper.

“That you spent it being fucked on my desk.”

A wave of shame threatened to wash over me, and I wanted nothing more than to recoil and hide. To sink into the shadows of secrecy and embarrassment. But a stubborn part of me refused to succumb to such easy humiliation. There was a flicker of defiance in me, a Savannah-ism that emerged when I was at my most vulnerable. A joke, a sharp retort, a tiny spark of light in the enveloping darkness. I struggled to grasp that glimmer and let it shine.

He studied me intently, still holding my face as if he were gauging the very essence of my being. Then, in a baffling shift of tone, he tilted his head and said, as casually as if he were planning a simple outing rather than having just claimed me on polished mahogany, “Let me take you out for lunch, and we’ll pretend we’re just friends for the rest of the day. What do you say?”

He delivered it like it was the most ordinary thing in the world. “Friends have coffee. Friends stay out of trouble. Friends don’t ruin each other’s reputations at work.”

For a fleeting moment, the absurdity of his proposition nearly knocked the breath from my lungs. Who casually suggests lunch after a heated encounter in an office? The calmness of his words felt surreal, as if someone had swapped the soundtrack—where passionate heat once played, now a playful sitcom theme filled the air.

A small, private smile broke across his face, a treasure that belonged only to us, before he leaned in to kiss me quickly, sealing our ridiculous compromise. It was absurd yet oddly comforting all at once.

The same lips that had just brought me to the edge of ecstasy now pressed a gentle promise against mine.

His fingers lingered at the nape of my neck for a moment longer before he finally released me. “We’ll see how long this pretense lasts before I crave you again,” he murmured, a hint of mischief in his voice. “And if anyone asks, tell them friends ran away for coffee.”

I stumbled out of the office, my skirt askew, hair wild, the scent of him lingering on the curve of my throat. I could feel his gaze on me as the door clicked shut behind me, the thud of my own heartbeat echoing loudly in my ears.

Once in the elevator, alone again, something ridiculous bubbled up inside me.

I envisioned us sitting across from each other at a café, perfect and domestic, sipping lattes like two strangers who had just escaped a scandal. The thought was so vastly different from what had just transpired that it made my head spin, and a giddy, foolish smile spread across my face.

Oh, what a perfect day!